Damon has also performed voice-over work and established several production companies. Damon has been actively involved in charitable work, including the ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, Feeding America, and Water.org. With his wife, Luciana Bozán Barroso, Damon has three daughters and a stepdaughter from Barroso's prior marriage.

Early life

Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second son of Kent Telfer Damon (born 1942), a stockbroker, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige (born 1944), an early childhood education professor at Lesley University.[8][9] His father is of Scottish and English descent and his mother is of Finnish and Swedish ancestry (his mother's family surname had been changed from the Finnish "Pajari" to "Paige").[10][11][12] Damon and his family moved to Newton for two years. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and Damon and his brother returned with their mother to Cambridge,[9][13] where they lived in a six-family communal house.[14][15] His brother Kyle is now an accomplished sculptor and artist.[9][16]

As a lonely adolescent, Damon has said that he didn't feel that he belonged.[14] Due to his mother's "by the book"[14] approach to child-rearing, he had a hard time defining a self identity, and as a result gravitated to role-playing.[14] He attended Cambridge Alternative School (now Graham and Parks) and then Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he was a good student,[17] but had a "terrifying" first two years due to his short stature.[18] Damon performed as an actor in several high school theater productions.[9] He credited his drama teacher, Gerry Speca, as an important artistic influence, even though Ben Affleck,[17] his good friend and schoolmate,[19] got the "biggest roles and longest speeches".[17][nb 2] Damon is Affleck's tenth cousin, once removed, through a common New England ancestor.[21]

Damon also attended Harvard University where he was a member of the class of 1992 but left before receiving his degree in order to take a lead role in the film School Ties. While at Harvard he wrote an early treatment of the screenplay for Good Will Hunting as an exercise for an English class. Damon was a member of the Delphic Club, one of the University's select Final Clubs. In 2013, he was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal.[22] Damon received an Academy Award for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting in 1998, which was handed to him by fellow Harvard alumnus Jack Lemmon, who had also been a member of Harvard's Delphic Club.[23]

Acting career

Early years: 1988–1996

Damon attended Harvard University in 1988,[24][nb 3] where he appeared in student theater plays, such as Burn This and A... My Name is Alice.[26][27] Later, he made his film debut at the age of 18, with a single line of dialogue in the romantic comedyMystic Pizza.[28] As a student at Harvard University, he acted in small roles such as in the TNT original film Rising Son and the ensemble prep-school drama School Ties.[29] He left the university in 1992, a semester - 12 credits - shy of completion of his Bachelor of Arts in English to feature in Geronimo: An American Legend[26][30] in Los Angeles, mistakenly expecting the movie to become a big success.[26][nb 4] Damon next appeared as an opiate-addicted soldier in 1996's Courage Under Fire, for which he lost 40 pounds (18 kg) in 100 days[28][32] on a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen. He took medication for a year and a half afterwards to correct the stress inflicted on his adrenal gland and was told he was lucky his heart did not shrink. Courage Under Fire gained him critical notice, when The Washington Post labeled his performance "impressive".[33]

Damon's attempts at essaying leading characters in romantic dramas such as 2000's All the Pretty Horses and The Legend of Bagger Vance were commercially and critically unsuccessful.[38]Variety said of his work in All the Pretty Horses: "[Damon] just doesn't quite seem like a young man who's spent his life amidst the dust and dung of a Texas cattle ranch. Nor does he strike any sparks with [Penelope] Cruz."[45] He was similarly deemed "uncomfortable being the center" of Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance.[46]

In January 2012, it was announced that Damon had signed a multi-year deal to be the voice of TD Ameritrade advertisements, replacing Sam Waterston as the discount brokerage's spokesman. Damon donates all fees from the advertisements to charity.[77] In 2013, Damon appeared in a 20-second advertisement for Nespresso, directed by Grant Heslov, with whom he worked on The Monuments Men. The deal earned Damon $3 million.[78]

Damon also provided voice-over for United Airlines's resurrected "Fly the Friendly Skies" advertisement campaign in 2013.[79]

Damon is also an ambassador for ONEXONE, a non-profit foundation committed to supporting, preserving and improving the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world.[83] Damon is also a spokesperson for Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization, and a member of their Entertainment Council, participating in their Ad Councilpublic service announcements.[84] Damon is a board member of Tonic Mailstopper (formerly GreenDimes), a company that attempts to halt junk mail delivered to American homes each day.[85][nb 6]

In the media

Damon at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, September 7, 2009

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel had a running gag at the end of his ABC television show Jimmy Kimmel Live! where he apologized for not being able to interview Damon at the end of each show. It culminated in a planned skit on September 12, 2006, when Damon stormed off after having his interview cut short.[87] Damon appeared in several of E! Entertainment's top ten Jimmy Kimmel Live! spoofs.[88][nb 7] On January 24, 2013, Damon took over his show and mentioned the long-standing feud and having been bumped from years of shows. It involved celebrities who were previously involved in on the "feud", including Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Silverman.[91]

Damon met Argentine bartender Luciana Bozán Barroso (born 1976) in April 2003 while filming Stuck on You in Miami.[97][98] They became engaged in September 2005 and married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The couple have three daughters: Isabella (b. 2006),[99] Gia Zavala (b. 2008)[100] and Stella Zavala (b. 2010).[101] He also has a daughter, Alexia Barroso (b. 1999), from Luciana's previous marriage.[102] Since 2012, they have lived in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles,[103] having previously lived in Miami and New York.[104]

Awards and honors

Aside from awards and nominations he has garnered for his role as actor and producer, Damon has received the following:

On July 25, 2007, Damon became the 2,343rd person to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[112] He reacted to the award by stating: "A few times in my life I've had these experiences that are just kind of too big to process and this looks like it's going to be one of those times."[113]

Notes

^In motion pictures that feature him either as a leading actor or as a supporting co-star, his films have grossed a total of $1.94[5] to $3.12 billion[4] (based on counting his roles as strictly lead or including supporting roles, respectively) at the North American box office, placing him in the top forty grossing actors of all time.

^Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 20, 2007, Damon promoted the organization's efforts to prevent the trees used for junk mail letters and envelopes from being chopped down. Damon stated: "For an estimated dime a day they can stop 70 percent of the junk mail that comes to your house. It's very simple, easy to do, great gift to give, I've actually signed up my entire family. It was a gift given to me this past holiday season and I was so impressed that I'm now on the board of the company."[86]

^On January 31, 2008, Kimmel aired a clip of his then girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman, singing a song entitled "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" in which Damon appeared.[88][89] Kimmel responded on February 24, 2008 with his music video which said that he was "fucking Ben Affleck". It featured Affleck along with several other actors.[88] Another encounter, titled "The Handsome Men's Club", featured Kimmel, along with handsome actors and musicians. At the end of the skit Kimmel had a door slammed in his face by Damon who said that they had run out of time, followed by a sinister laugh.[88][90]